), is professor emeritus of cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...

 and sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 of Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 at Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

. His special interests are thematic symbolic anthropology

Symbolic anthropology

Symbolic anthropology is the study of cultural symbols and how those symbols can be interpreted to better understand a particular society. It is often viewed in contrast to cultural materialism. According to symbolic anthropologists, the scientific method does not concern human behavior nor...

, cultural materialism

Cultural materialism (anthropology)

Cultural materialism is an anthropological research orientation first introduced by Marvin Harris in his 1968 book The Rise of Anthropological Theory, as a theoretical paradigm and research strategy. Indeed it is said to be the most enduring achievement of that work. Harris subsequently developed a...

, vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...

, and social change

Social change

Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...

 among ethnic minorities

Minority group

A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...

. He has lectured and written about diversity and commonality amongst the inhabitants of the islands off the coast of West Sumatra

West Sumatra

West Sumatra is a province of Indonesia. It lies on the west coast of the island Sumatra. It borders the provinces of North Sumatra to the north, Riau and Jambi to the east, and Bengkulu to the southeast. It includes the Mentawai Islands off the coast...

.

Early years

He is the son of the classical

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 archaeologist Karl Schefold

Karl Schefold

Karl Schefold was a classical archaeologist based in Basel, Switzerland. Born and educated in Germany, he was forced in 1935 to emigrate to Switzerland, which he adopted as his home country...

, who was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Basel

University of Basel

The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...

. His mother was Marianne (née von den Steinen) Schefold. Reimar received his Ph.D. from the University of Basel.

Career

His career has included several field studies of Indonesian communities in the Mentawai Islands

Mentawai Islands

The Mentawai Islands are a chain of about seventy islands and islets off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Siberut is the largest of the islands. The other major islands are Sipura, North Pagai and South Pagai . The islands lie approximately 150 km off the Sumatran coast, across the...

. In this regard, he has researched the Mentawaians' culinary code in the Puliaijat ritual, and the anthropocentric origin myths of the Mentawaians. At least four of his other published works have also involved the people of Siberut, including religious conceptions, traditional culture, songs, and head-hunting. Having spent many years among the Sakuddei

Sakuddei

The Sakuddei are an ethnic group, one of at least eleven, on the island of Siberut, Indonesia. Siberut is the northernmost of the Mentawai Islands which are located to the west off the coast of Sumatra. TheSakuddei live in south central Siberut in an egalitarian society, cut off from the outside...

 in Siberut, Schefold researched their life in the tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest

A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

, including their views on everything having a spirit

Spirit

The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...

 that is "free to wander as it wishes".

One of his areas of specialization is vernacular architecture; with several hundred ethnic groups in Indonesia, Schefold researched their extreme variety, fundamental similarities, as well as their creative adaptation to regional circumstances and social changes. In the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World

Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World

The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World is a three-volume encyclopedia detailing the traditional architecture of the world, by cultural region...

, Schefold describes how Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

's Dogon people

Dogon people

The Dogon are an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. The population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000 The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture and...

 use complex esoteric anthropomorphic

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

 symbolism, associating parts of the human body with their homes. In one of Schefold's books titled the "Indonesian Houses: Tradition and transformation in vernacular architecture, Volume 1", he deals elaborately with the traditional houses of Indonesians, particularly the Siberut

Siberut

Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, lying 150 kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. A part of Indonesia, the island is the most important home for the Mentawai people. The western half of the island was set aside as the Siberut National Park in 1993...

 people.

While Schefold has authored and co-authored numerous books, Framing Indonesian Realities: Essays in Symbolic Anthropology in Honour of Reimar Schefold is a 2004 compilation of essays written by others that touch upon the subjects Schefold worked on for 35 years amongst the various cultural groups of Indonesia.

He was Chairman of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and President of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology, Leiden.

Partial bibliography

• (1972), Divination in Mentawai
• (1973), Religious conceptions on Siberut, Mentawai
• (1976), Religious involution : internal change and its consequences in the taboo system of the Mentawaians
• (1981), The traditional culture of Siberut
• (1982), The culinary code in the Puliaijat ritual of the Mentawaians
• (1982), Sei gut zu deiner Seele : Leben im tropischen Regenwald : das Beispiel der Sakuddei ("Be nice to your soul: life in the tropical rain forest: the example of Sakuddei")
• (1988), Indonesia in focus : ancient traditions-modern times
• (1992), The origins of the woman on the raft : on the prehistory of the Mentawaians
• (1994) http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:krkBx9MR6hUJ:www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv/article/view/1812/2573+Schefold+KITLV&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESix2gpPVfa1Ptu8VsZGRIp-I4duXnON9Ym-eIum-yizAq40uxRFxFrIvn94ZC_C3Ui2Sy2DsksbaWzbapgMKF0ao6bFlqmHzFXBG-_sAS3resjR9N_ObOIoYRKs9ZOg0g_c9Mbu&sig=AHIEtbQLvdSHccqL_Y4028D7rJYjkXNe1wCultural anthropology, future tasks for Bijdragen, and the Indonesian Field of Anthropological Study]
• (1995), Minahasa past and present : tradition and transition in an outer island region of Indonesia
• (1998), The domestication of culture; Nation-building and ethnic diversity in Indonesia
• (1999), Nature in songs, songs in nature : texts from Siberut, West Sumatra, Indonesia
• (2001), Three sources of ritual blessings in traditional Indonesian societies
• (2002), Nias : Mentawai - Enggano : diversity and commonality within an island chain in western Indonesia
• (2002), Stylistic canon, imitation and faking: Authenticity in Mentawai art in Western Indonesia
• (2003), Indonesian houses. Vol. 1 : tradition and transformation in vernacular architecture
• (2007), Ambivalent Blessings. Head-Hunting on Siberut (Mentawai) in a Comparative Southeast Asian Perspective
• (2008), Indonesian houses. Vol. 2, Survey of vernacular architecture in western Indonesia